Remembering Irrfan Khan and his 'filmy influences' with old pics of him

Actor Irrfan Khan, who was battling neuroendocrine tumour, died at 53 on Wednesday in Mumbai. He was admitted to Kokilaben Hospital on Tuesday afternoon due to colon infection. Irrfan is survived by his wife Sutapa and two sons. He was born on January 7, 1967, in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Irrfan studied at the prestigious National School of Drama (NSD). He made his Bollywood debut with 'Salaam Bombay!' in 1988, and the film was also nominated for the Academy Awards that year. He has films such as 'Haasil' and 'Maqbool', 'Paan Singh Tomar', 'Haider', 'Gunday', 'Piku', 'Talvar' and 'Hindi Medium' to his credit. 

In a series of Instagram posts in 2017, Irrfan had shared pictures of him enacting several film scenes and how actors such as Rajesh Khanna and Mithun Chakraborty influenced him in his growing days. Let's take a look at those pictures again and remember Irrfan, an actor par excellence.

"Somebody told me that to be an actor you must know horse riding … so whenever I went to ride (or learn to ride - which I didn't at that time), I made it a point that when I sat on the horse … my look would be inspired by Rajesh Khanna ji …. Hero toh banna hi tha," he wrote.

"Though we weren’t allowed to watch cinema we used to watch a few movies .. and take pictures and weave a story around it… it would capture our minds … and it would be up to us and you to decipher what these stories would be! #FilmyInfluence Look at the guy - he is supposed to be dead. But he is smiling!" he captioned the post.

A young Irrfan enacts a film scene with his friends.

Irrfan and his memories will always remain with us.

"I wanted my hair to be like Mithun Chakraborty, so I used to go to a barber shop and tell them ke 'mere baal seedhe kar do…'," Irrfan had explained in this post. 

Irrfan, you and your work will always be missed.